doorway details...

... and more peacocks!

Tawsi Melek Sanjak

I took the top photo of a clearly recent painting of an Indian sari-clad lady with a sanjak, a bronze image of the sacred peacock. I believe it is used for the parade of the peacocks on the Yezidi New Year, but as I mentioned, I have never made it to a festival and can't elaborate.
I will however try asking Ezster (who sent the bottom photo of the sanjak of Shekhan).

Lalish Revisited

Tiziana was slightly suspicious that I might be Yezidi as we traversed below the temple to the sacred river of Zimzim to drink and wash. But it just isn't true. The truth is I find Lalish to be a mysterious and magical place. This time as there were only two of us, we were able to explore at leisure. We wandered through the little paths to all the little buildings, all of which are part of this temple complex. I was told it is quite busy during the festivals although I haven't yet managed to time my trip to catch one.

The above photo is of a road leading to the highest point of the mountain/hill overlooking the temple. The white areas house alcoves with more spaces to light the oil lamps at night.
(Above photo by Tiziana) These women were coming down as we were going up. They eyed our shoes suspiciously, but our guide had told us we could put them back on after leaving the temple.
And after wandering, we stopped for tea at the house of the family on the left: the Faqirs. Apparently, two families live at Lalish; the Faqirs and the Babachawish. My guide this time was an English-speaking man from the Faqir family with a desire to speak better English and study at our university (His first degree was completed at the University of Mosul).

Anyway, he tried to explain to me about the families and castes of the Yezidi society, but it was somewhat confusing. Of course there are plenty of websites to illustrate this more clearly, but it seems that the Mir (descended from Tawsi Melek) is the spiritual leader and under him are the Sheikhs (descended from 6 of the 7 great angels), the Pirs (descended from Sheikh Adi -in one of the tombs at Lalish) and the Murids (majority of Yezidis). I guess my new friend is a Pir?

For Eszter

This is in lieu of an email reply to the comment you left on my post electricity. First of all, let me thank you for your comments on Lalish. It was hard to write about the significance of some of the things I saw there as our group didn't know very much about the Yezidis before going. It took me a long time to try to sift through lots of conflicting information (even information from my local friends was conflicting) and decide what to post. Any photos or additional information you would like to send would be much appreciated (meezane@gmail.com).

Glad you liked my photos of Turkey. I hope to go back again soon, but maybe Urfa, Harran and Gaziantep next time. And of course there is the whole west coast still to be discovered. I find Turkey to be stunning, be it the cityscape of Istanbul, the fairy chimneys of Capadoccia, or the villages, the volcanic rock fields and ruins in East Anatolia. of course there are wonderful places here too... but too many of them are not safe to visit or I simply haven't made it there yet as travel is not as convenient as in Turkey. I am sure you know better than me. I hope to travel to Dohuk, Amedi and Halamata Cave next weekend. Perhaps you have advice?

Anyway, I will try to post more about university life here in Kurdistan. As you mention, the difficulty is the need to be careful. Perhaps after I leave?

Best, Zanmei

Leaving Lalish

The post is dedicated to our Lalish hosts, who sent us off with all the warmth of good friends sad to see their guests leave. On arrival, children scattered and we were treated with wariness until Dr. P jumped out and went up to the nearest adults and started chatting in Kurdish. Her warmth seemed to be infectious and soon we had a group of "guides" who seemed happy to take is through the temple, explain the protocol (for example, don't step onto any of the stones in the doorways (the threshholds?). The first picture is of our guides. The second picture shows people dancing. There seems to be a less restrictions on interaction between women and men here than in Hawler as women were holding men's hands and were wearing tighter clothes, some with short sleeves. The third picture is of some children looking at a picture on Dr. S's camera. One of the little boys then got a splinter in his finger and the whole community gathered round to try to help him. The women in the fourth picture are ones who followed us down to the bus and who tried (somewhat successfully) to get us to dance with them. Finally, you see a rather non-descript picture of a white SUV. As we were leaving (in high spirits), our driver put on some music usually reserved for weddings and we all started dancing, hooting and waving hankies in the bus. We neglected to notice that the SUV in front held our Lalish hosts. But they were excited to see us and waved hankies and beads back, laughing and smiling...

Yezidi - Fact or Fiction?

Before coming to Lalish, I had heard many strange stories... that Yezidis were Satan worshipers who performed strange virgin-sacrificing rituals in the evenings and that is why nobody was really welcome there; that thier God was a peacock and they worshipped more than one god; that the Yezidi religion is a deviation of Christianity, Islam or Zoroastrianism... but that nobody can become a Yezidi... We didn't find any of these to be true... entirely.

1. God is peacock/Satan:
As you pass through the doorway into the temple, you enter the tomb of the 7 great angels. All of these angels are incarnations of a supreme god who greated the universe, the seas and of course Lalish! One of the incarnations, the archangel Tawsi Melek (peacock angel) is the one through which the supreme God administers his rule over Lalish, the Earth and maybe even the universe. That Tawsi Melek is Satan was not clear from visitng Lalish, but the word "Shaetan" is forbidden there, so if "he" is considered to be Satan or Lucifer, then the concept is completely different. It appears that Tawsi Melek was present in the Garden with Adam, but to teach him thow to survive in the world and so forth... not to tempt him to evil. At the tomb of the 7 great Angels, certainly nothing malevolent happens... Pilgrims go up to one of the rainbow colored cothes covering the tombs and tie a knot in it while making a wish. After wish-making, they untie a knot that was made prior to thier visit to ensure that the wish of someone else will come true.

2. Virginal sacrices and other strange rituals?
Hmmm... I am really not sure about this one, although lots of violence has happened as a result of intolerance between the Muslim and Yezidi communities. Women from both communities have been killed in the past year as a result of being seen with men from the other community. However, at the temple itself, I could only find evidence of a whole lot of lamp-lighhting, praying and wishing. This picture shows another form of wishing that takes place in the temple. Believers stand in the Cave of the Wishing Rock, close their eyes and try to throw a cloth on top of the rock. You have three tries and only one has to be successful. I failed all three times.

3. Noone can become a Yezidi.
Well maybe not now, but once upon a time... seems that Yezidism is not so exclusive and secretive due to strange and terrifying rituals, but rather due to persecution at the hands of mainstream culture in the area. Perhaps there was a fear that this minority group would grow if people were allowed to convert and they stopped it. The picture below shows the entrance to the cave leading to the Sacred Brook of Zemsem. The cave leads to the brook and beyond where there is a separate exit out of the temple. Once upon a time, exiting on the other side was to exit as a reborn Yezidi. Only Dr. P was invited down to the brook this time, but she didn't go out to the other side. I guess this only makes her an honorary, but not true Yezidi.

4. The Yezidi religion is a deviation of...
what? It really isn't clear. However, the lamplighting and praying to the sun make it clear the connections to Zoroastrianism. Also, there is a supreme God as in Christianity and Islam... and the leader who wrote down the scriptures (as late as the 1100s) was a converted Muslim (to my understanding): Sheikh Adi, the inhabitant of the biggest tomb at Lalish - the one you can kiss and circle to make more wishes/prayers. The picture below shows the Altar of Heaven and Hell (represented by two side-by-side holes in the rock) found in an inner sanctum belond the tombs of the 7 angels, the entrance to the cave of the Sacred Brook of Zemsem and the cave of the wishing rock. Heaven and Hell are other interesting concepts. Apparently, some believe that there is a hell, but only the truly bad people go there, but others believe in a form of reincarnation whereby the greatest ill that cold befall you is to be reborn as a non-Yezidi. Does this hark back to Hinduism? Kurds are an Indo-European peoples.

These are only a few of the mysteries of Lalish. Please comment if you have further information or other interesting points to ponder.

Miscellaneous Lalish

I can't fit all of the pictures of Lalish into one or even two posts, so my first one dedicated entirely to Lalish will be of some of the miscellaneous sights that caught my attention as I didn't fully (or even partially) comprehend what I was seeing on my first foray into the temple (for want of an interpreter).

This picture below is of a room inside the temple compound, but not connected to the temple. The "litter" you see strewn on the "benches" around the room is in actuallity BREAD! It is left here by the devout to be blessed. After it has been blessed, the Lalish pilgrims will take some away with them so that they had have bread blessed by the holy man at their home.

Below, please find the typical type of photo I take when I don't really understand what I am looking at. It is the detailed stonework over the entrance to the main temple building. If I had thought about it more, I would have looked to see if there was a peacock engraved somewhere and taken a photo of that.

Our driver stands in front of the doorway next to a huge black serpent. What does it signify? Hard to say. He couldn't get an answer from our hosts and stories on the internet indicate different origins. Did Shelk Adi turn this menace into stone on the wall of the temple or does it signify the earthly incarnation of one of the great angels?

This is in one of the inner rooms of the temple where the olive (?) oil is stored. Oil is one of the first things I noticed as I entered. The temple smelled of oil (olive or vegetable) and even the stone floor tiles felt slightly oily...

As it turns out, the oil was used to keep the lamps (which were everywhere) during the night. Prayers are said at different times, but the mains ones are in the evening and morning (both conducted facing the sun and between which these lamps must be kept alight). The other prayers can be said facing Lalish!

I hope these snippets are enough to whet your appetite for more Lalish information, be it truth or falsehood.

The Road to Lalish

This time last year I had just returned from North Kurdistan (Diyarbakir) where I spent a fabulous Eid break reveling in the fact that there was cake and coffee... and that there were women in the street. This year, some of that can now be found here in South Kurdistan. For instance, there is cake to be had at both Dilan Restaurant and Abu Afif- baklava bakery from Baghdad.
This year, although I had been thinking of crossing the border to Gaziantep or Urfa, what with the Turkish-army-amassing-on-the-border situation, I decided instead that this was the time to take the long awaited day trip to Lalish, the Yezidi spiritual heartland.

Meet the group of happy travellers: all first-timers to Lalish except for out driver (far right) and his friend (far left)... but funnily enough, the real guide was Dr. P, third from the left (next to me).

And this is where we stopped for a lovely brunch of half-cooked chicken kebabs and tea in the garden:

This next picture has no significant, but of all the silly pictures I took of nothing (in the excitement of finally being on my way to Lalish, I liked this one as I like the drawing of the truck. I remember arguing once in the UBC fine arts department that anything can be art if someone considers it to be so.

And this last photo is where the real excitement started to build! Finally at Lalish - the sight of the distinctive conical shapes let us know that we have arrived and this trip is not going to end in the disappointment I experienced on my last failed attempt to get here!